I believe this example is wrong as Sir Syed was not the representative of Cultural Slavery of West, ye he advocated learning of English and Modern Education but he propagated the adoption of English as medium of Education not the Medium of Cultural Expansionism
So It's not about the medium of Education but Medium of of Cultural invasion, I am sure you must have remember after 9-11 one of the first demands of US was to change the curriculum of Primary and Secondary schools in Pakistan and you must be aware about their reasonings, what they were debating in their circles in west but no heed was paid for the technical education, this thing alone is enough to prove their objectives.
Further I am sure you must be aware about the mushroom growth of Private chains of Schools and Colleges and in Universities left oriented professors and Student organizations were encouraged .....
We all how many students of those private schools or Colleges in Pakistan are capable to compete with student of same standard on merit in west ..... but in twenty years rather to focus on quality of education focus was rather set to on different trajectory,
In past 20 years we have produced a class of pupils who are suffering with 'Superiority complex against their own people and alien in their own country" ..... Iman Mazari, Waqas Goria and other member of this class are just few examples.
Further I would ask you to recall the initial days of insurgency in Balochistan which started to expand its roots in Universities and Colleges even before the death of Akbar Bugti.
My remark was sarcastic in nature reflecting the PM’s daft remark on the cultural victory.
Sir Syed did a great service by focusing on adopting the British education in order to create more aware leadership that could play the same game as the Brits and beat them at it which included an understanding of the sciences(technical and economic) along with literature. However, a side effect of this was that the true Madressa system(
not the sodomy infested barbaric institutions that dominate it today) was lost along with its more encompassing teachings of not just the Quran & Sunnah but also many other skills including the cultural specific sciences such as mathematics and natural medicine. So where this new generation emerged that knew what the British were doing to rule and could match the Hindu who had adopted faster - they also forgot the knowledge that was gathered in economics and sciences from the days there were muslim empires in India. The Hindu didn’t actually lose it because their religious leaders did not outright reject the British and allowed some of their historical knowledge of medicine and other sciences to be( please do not mistake it with the current paralell but obtuse idiocy they are throwing out in the name of Bhaktoras.. a practicer of vedic medicine could treat most known diseases some 200 years ago as could a hakeem - I am not saying that is obsolete or irrelevant in today’s medicine but using it as inference to where a balance between knowledge adoption including good cultural qualities has to be balanced and not one
Absolutely - but tuition centers were popping up around the same time as Bhutto took over even prior to the invasion of O&A levels. Cultural invasion are successful only if the local culture isn’t strong enough in the first place and doesn’t offer(from a social perspective in independent growth) the freedom of knowledge to all.
What is whole reason the aurat march continues to gain ground despite being incompatible on quite a few fronts with what were supposed Islam based local customs? Probably because the local customs themselves were tribal in origin and had nothing to do with religion. Hence even seemingly religious girls seem to be clinging to this movement because other than archaic cultural “women as property” concepts they find enough justification to hate Pakistani culture. This is an oppressive society that discouraged education for the longest time along with promoting racist and fascist ideals as acceptable “family values” behavior.
Left orientation or right orientation is a reflection of imbalances and failed society more than some nefarious design. There were trained “scholars” sent by the British from the 1900s to sway the religious right into leading muslims into more suitable outcomes for the British - not just in Pakistan but in Iran and elsewhere. No different to how the GCC countries, the Iranians and western countries fund young men preaching Quran while lying on couches.
What matters is whether the society had spent enough time evolving its culture in a positive way or only adapting it. Pakistani culture has adapted, it hasn’t evolved but maybe devolved. Bribery is now an acceptable practice and supporters of a major political party chant “we love corruption”. With a mix of Varna(creed,color) and Jati(where they were born) - An elite class consisting of brahmins(representing the political, business, military and religious leadership),Kshatriyas(the military and bureaucrats),Vaishyas(the middle class) and the poor in Shudras have emerged. Among these too are other cultural inheritances of the religious (Syed,Siddiqui, Shia, sunni) or tribal(Rajputs or Arains or their provincial equivalents) and color of skin that make up other divides. The financial aspect castes can be argued that exist in other societies as well, but that doesn’t mean this culture becomes automatically superior for it. Language and literature is essentially moving into slapstick from refined - a massive divide of liberal extremist or religious extremism is playing out on social media while all sorts pay to watch women revealing themselves or idiotic pranks and shorts on tik tok as it is all over the world.
So - the only possible space left to claim cultural superiority then is with education. But that is generally showing little progress and today’s middle class Pakistani even at a CEO level of a 1000 employee organization cannot fathom to build his family a home if he doesn’t have inherited property from his father - or is in the military, or corrupt all the while having to pay expensive tuition fees for both school and the after hours practice for the teacher since government institutions or those that do not follow the O&A level system( barring some boarding schools) cannot offer equivalent pay to good teachers nor a honest education.
So, regardless of the merits/demerits of westen education and associated cultural invasion(
as if every lower to upper middle class and elite households aren’t already rife with barenaked Indians gyrating suggestively or constant domestic conflict themed serials that reflects in their daily behaviors) may have infected teens with Justin and promoted unmarried sex through pornography; the cultural invasion from western education did not cause an outbreak of teen affairs. I lived through the evolution of backstreet boys to Nirvana to Eminem - and while there were always the one or two kids having their puppy love, the explosion of these
love affairs occurred when Shah Rukh Khan promoted it in Mohabbatien. The kids of your low level clerk to driver are now online and having affairs based upon Pakistani serials - so I ask.. what invaded where?
James Bond was being shown in all its bond girl glory since Dr.NO but it did not cause the cultural invasion much decried here but Bollywood did. Meanwhile, Bollywood has offered no educational input and despite the angst of western nations trying to enforce their narratives to shape the society - it was also western educated scientists that Bhutto called to build the bomb.
So clearly, western education isn’t the problem. Its the local culture itself that is as incoherent in its messaging as it is weak to resisting and responding to threats. Culling women en masse or banning English isn’t cultural supremacy, its cultural failure. Those that live in inferiority complex of the west or dream of green cards for financial or personal freedom are in for a shock. The cultural issues here are different but same in magnitude with evils heretofore not experienced in Pakistani society. But then there are evils in Pakistan that are unheard of here. What is different is the embedding, even if not complete for values of equality, justice and thirst for knowledge within the culture even if it fails on many many occasions.
That is cultural superiority which Pakistan lacks in any form and therefore is easily invaded because all other aspects of culture including language, practices and fashion can change but these don’t.
As a representative of the middle class ( not elite, I don’t own land or came to America with even $5000) with his social circle representing everyone from dentists to bankers to government employees and businessmen, from Nadra to “atmi idaray” and uniformed officers everyone in between that actually run the underlying mechanics and services within the country..they all cite the same three principles lacking within culture (because that shapes society) on why they are fed up of Pakistan and want a way out. Many Pakistanis here will say “good bye! Good riddance!” And post smilies to seem as non-chalant and triumphant as possible, but the one’s looking to get out represent the brain drain that these same people lament later.
Why the long discourse - because the impact of culture in the statement is being taken either as low as the dress or as limited as the English language or western education. Instead, everything that represents Pakistan is culture - be it the hospitality that is lauded all over the world, or the open and acceptable sale of child pornography in Kasur - the choice lies whether Pakistanis choose to consider their sister questioning her father’s decision to not let her study beyond intermediate as justified or cultural degradation because she used some reference from the uncouth ladies that also accompany aurat march.
